I was thinking the same. Everyone has seen his goal against Holland at Lansdowne Road but those of us of a certain vintage will remember that Jason McAteer got 2 crucial goals against the Dutch in that campaign.
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That's a big disappointment in relation to wc 2022 qualification rather than my hope of getting into the second pot. Sounds like we will be third seeds at best. Still if we have a good euros you would hope that this will give us a new spirit regardless of being down the pots.
In qualifiers at home since sept. 2001, have we only beaten one team from the top two seeds?
Probably.. I've always felt our home form is never good enough against the really top sides.. way too many draws.
But again I'll go back to managers who don't think we're good enough, and leave us constantly playing on the back foot no matter who we play at home. If you concede possession and ground to an opponent, the fans end up spending the whole game chewing their nails rather than making the stadium rock.. what you need in the Aviva.. is hostility.. noise.. f**k it, bring one flares, drums, bells, large Tifo flags.. the works.. make our team feel like they have 50,000 players.. and make opponents feel like they don't want to be the ones to **** 50,000 people off
A good draw in that we could have got tougher teams ( though all that can be unpredictable ) .
But A Bit Boring . The Danes again .
Reasonably good from Mick’s point of view but a bit of auld Glamour wouldn’t have hurt .
Everyone needs a little Razzle Dazzle now and again .
our support has gone to the dogs recently. granted the football was poor but rehashed celtic songs, the pathetic james mcclean song, the even worse version of the icelandic clap have left lansdowne soulless. sure the welsh were laughing at us a couple of games back. time for the fans to step it up too i feel
any word on the fixtures yet?
edit: tracked them down.
Mar 23 Gibraltar 🇬🇮 (A) 17:00
Mar 26 Georgia 🇬🇪 (H) 19:45
Jun 7 Denmark 🇩🇰 (A) 19:45
Jun 10 Gibraltar 🇬🇮 (H) 19:45
Sep 5 Switzerland 🇨🇭 (H) 19:45
Oct 12 Georgia 🇬🇪 (A) 14:00
Oct 15 Switzerland 🇨🇭 (A) 19:45
Nov 18 Denmark 🇩🇰 (H) 19:45
Hadn't realised every flag was red and white.
Tough second half of the campaign. Would need 10 points from the first half I'd say
Tough end to the group IMO, Switzerland, then away to Georgia and Switzerland and finish against Denmark at home
If there's a date available for a friendly in September, it's a chance for experimentation
The best thing about that start is it gives us a chance to give Obafemi some time in two games against Gibraltar and perhaps Georgia and, everything going according to plan, by the time we face Switzerland in September he'll have four competitive caps and over 20 EPL games under his belt. It may also give us a later than anticipated chance to blood Daniel Crowley, Jimmy Dunne and even Aaron Connolly, should he show up in Brighton's FA Cup team in January. And if Declan Rice stays with us, his decision to skip the lower-stakes competitive action of the Nations League might not be as big of a problem.
Of course, we may get caught cold by Gibraltar, in which case this draw will be a disaster:eek:
Starting with Gibraltar away is another hark-back to the first Mick reign, which started with Liechtenstein away.
That was a kind of banana skin as we'd drawn with them 12 months earlier. But instead we were 4-0 up after half an hour.
A repeat would be quite good!
We've two games to start with.. that should be 6 points. If we don't get 6 there we're at nothing anyway. Mick will have gotten 4 months to look at the players and ten days in camp.. he needs to be ready for Denmark away in the third game.. which feck it.. I couldn't care less if he goes double martin/trap and sticks all 11 behind the ball and get the worst 0-0 draw we've ever seen out of it.
However.. we need to beat either Switzerland or Denmark at home.. I think it's that simple
Excellent draw for us, and a nice easy start to get running. Granted Switzerland and Denmark are currently ahead of us, but there not light years ahead either. Switzerland lost out to an organised but limited Swedish team in the WC, a Swedish side badly exposed against England in the next round. And Denmark couldn't score in two games against us, when we were at our weakest.
We are not going to get much better opportunities than this to finish in the top two, and failing that a playoff place is virtually assured. It is set up for us to qualify and it's a failure of duty on the part of McCarthy if we don't.
I think the Swiss are a fair bit ahead of us in quite a few ways, not least their ability to navigate qualifying pretty effectively down the years, but yes, the Sweden and NI games suggest that there may be something to be gained from them.